Barry Wilson

The federal budget last week offered a few minor financial sweeteners to agriculture and rural Canada, while projecting a $100 million cut in agricultural spending starting next year. The budget projected agricultural program spending will fall to $900 million in the fiscal year beginning April 1, 1999 from an allotted $1 billion this year. And […] Read more

It was the budget speech that several generations of finance ministers could only dream of delivering. Last week, finance minister Paul Martin announced the first balanced budget in 28 years, predicted at least two more years of balanced budgets and debt pay-down, and a bevy of spending programs and selective tax cuts. “Let me simply […] Read more

Federal health minister Allan Rock last week promised to do what he can to preserve the rural health-care system, in the face of reports that hospitals are closing, doctors are leaving and rural services do not match urban services. He is appointing an executive director of rural health to advise him. “The executive director of […] Read more

Olds College and the CIBC, one of Canada’s major banks, have signed an agreement worth $158,000 to set up an agribusiness centre. The centre, located on the college campus, will train agricultural lenders, rural small business managers, producers and agricultural entrepreneurs. This is the first program of its kind in Canada, said a news release. […] Read more

Keller elected president The Canada West Equipment Dealers Association has elected a new president and board for 1998. Terry Keller, of Agripower Equipment Ltd. in Kindersley, Sask., is the new president and will oversee construction of a new office complex for the association in Calgary. The executive committee also includes past-president G. Gale Holroyd, first […] Read more

The Canadian Wheat Board reform road show is preparing another tour of Western Canada, thanks to the Senate agriculture committee and its plans for spring hearings on CWB legislation. Members on the committee last week said they want to give farmers one last chance to speak on Bill C-4 at public hearings planned in late […] Read more

In the face of attacks from both sides of the issue, Canadian Wheat Board minister Ralph Goodale last week sent his CWB reform legislation to the Senate claiming it is the best compromise possible. “Bill C-4 represents an honest attempt to find some reasonable common ground,” Goodale told the House of Commons during debate Feb. […] Read more

WINNIPEG – A defeat in court, followed by a stern lecture from a Winnipeg judge, have done little to deter farmers vowing to break the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly. “Our philosophy is we’re going to be in the wheat board’s face on this until we win,” said Russ Larson, chair of the Canadian Farm Enterprise […] Read more

The much-anticipated explosion in hog production on the Prairies is slow to ignite and federal economists are predicting it could slow down even more this year. Livestock herd numbers compiled by Statistics Canada report that only in Manitoba did the hog expansion show life last year. The provincial herd increased 2.8 percent to just under […] Read more

All 10 provinces have agreed to be part of the new national chicken production allocation agreement when it takes effect June 7. Late last week, British Columbia and Ontario said they’d sign the deal, worked out in January after almost a year of fractious negotiations. The new national agreement will be signed March 25 in […] Read more